When the dust settled — and did so quite quickly on Election night — GOP pollster Frank Luntz had it right and everybody else had it wrong. Instead of experiencing a fatal wound or even the electoral near-death experience of 1998, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), cruised to a surprisingly comfortable five-point win. (Luntz predicted seven but he was a lot closer than Las Vegas Review-Journal pet pollster Mason-Dixon, they of the skimpy sampling rates. M-D had Reid -4%. In the Third Congressional District M-D projected a 10% margin for the winner, who actually eked out an 0.5% victory.) What threatened to be a long evening was over before it started. The halls of the gushy Sharron Angle fanzine known as the R-J must be reverberating today with frustrated cries of “Thunderation!”, “Consarn it!” and “Jumpin’ Jehosaphat!” Its cutting-edge 19th century technology was certainly in full glory on Election Night.
If ever there was a “must-win” for the casino industry, this was it. The loss of face would have been industry-wide and crushing — although Steve Wynn backed Reid with such ill grace he might as well have endorsed Angle, whose whackdoodle rhetoric he dyspeptically echoed. Had Reid lost, not only would MGM Resorts International, Harrah’s Entertainment, Station Casinos and a host of other industry movers and shakers have looked like toothless lions. They’d then devote six years to abasing themselves and sucking up to a candidate who’d spent her entire candidacy spitting venom upon them, starting with a refusal to take campaign donations from gaming. “Undue pressure,” y’know. (Translation: “Casinos … ewwwwww! Yucky!”)
Even if a frosh Sen. Angle had been willing to turn a receptive ear to the casino industry’s financial predicament, her well-established go-it-alone tendencies wouldn’t have earned her many markers on Capitol Hill. With Sen. John Ensign at this point a dead man walking, Nevada‘s #1 industry would hold scant influence in Washington, D.C. One of the advantages of having a Majority Leader in your corner is that if you need tax deferrals in return for buying distressed debt, it can be — and was — slipped into the legislative hopper with little fuss or notice. And if you want to protect your brick-and-mortar casinos by keeping UIGEA off the floor, old Harry’s your man. Were I a casino executive, Reid vs. Angle would be a no-brainer. From the industry’s viewpoint, it just made cents … er, sense.
But we cannot leave the topic without mentioning again the heavy hand laid down by Continue reading
“But if a microphone appears, [Sen. Harry Reid] assumes the persona of a wan, Old West undertaker whose own pulse needs to be checked.” — from a New York Times story 
It’s been obvious since jump street that MGM Resorts International bit off more than it could chew when it upsized its ambitions for the old Boardwalk site into a civic citadel, a Valhalla on the Strip. Behind CEO Jim Murren‘s sanguine rhetoric about the advantages of refinancing $1.8 billion in CityCenter debt 
Prospects for 
MGM Resorts International and old ball and chain Dubai World have consummated a deal to extend $1.8 billion in CityCenter loans, a reworking that MGM CEO Jim Murren calls “a capital structure that’s much more … in keeping with a project like that.” The company’s so keen on the metaresort 
“I’m completely sick and tired of thinking about what took place behind me. We’re ecstatic to be out of bankruptcy with new ownership. We’re well capitalized. I’ll be damned if we’re going to see this thing fail.” — Tropicana Casino & Resort CEO Mark Giannantonio, 
It’s too close to call as debate over Cordish Gaming‘s Maryland casino project goes down to the wire. Voters can strip the project of its zoning although that’s no guarantee that the project will automatically become the domain of Laurel Park raceway and co-owner Penn National Gaming. The latter would have to dispose of its suddenly inconvenient Perryville casino. It would also have to count on the State of Maryland to reward its (Penn’s) cynical gerrymandering with a replacement gaming contract. In an ironic disconnect, Cordish lobbyist and gubernatorial candidate Robert Ehrlich (obviously) supports keeping the license where it is — but his supporters don’t. Also, the electorate has cooled on expansion into table games — frustrated with the snail’s pace of casino development? — which some had been thought would be fast-tracked under Ehrlich.
A curious item popped up on the Manila Web site MB.com last week. Remember how Macao was “Asia’s Las Vegas”? The new meme is “More Than Just the New Vegas” (emphasis added). The lengthy puff piece rather strenuously posited Macao as a fun-for-the-whole-family destination. Selling points included historic architecture, bungee-jumping, luxury retail and the observation at — Venetian Macao — “you don’t have to eat at a posh restaurant if you don’t want to; after all, there’s a McDonald’s just around the corner.” Golden Arches, you say? Damn! Where’s my passport?
While gambling was supposed to represent a smallish part of the Singapore formula, Sands and Resorts World Sentosa (left) are on pace to generate $6 billion in revenue in their first four quarters and could grow that by 65% in two years. Which means that Adelson may b behind schedule for making his projected $1 billion annual profit but will get there sooner rather than later. You have to tip your cap to the old wheeler-dealer for having confidence in Singapore when others (Steve Wynn, James Packer, Lawrence Ho) faltered. He also shown great acuity toward what the city-state’s government wanted.
No, somebody didn’t topple the Stratosphere in the dead of night. So immense is the unfinished hulk of Fontainebleau that it completely obliterates one’s view of the tower, whose design is frequently — and quite unfairly, IMO — maligned in these parts. Bob Stupak‘s legacy also serves as a valuable reference point when navigating the Las Vegas Valley. The photo above graphically illustrates how grotesquely out of proportion to its surroundings F-blew is: a giant Godzilla foot planted upon the Strip. Unfortunately,